Family FACTS & STATS - http://www.familyfacts.org/A round-up of social science findings on healthy marriage/healthy family research gathered from peer-reviewed journals, books and government surveys. Serving policymakers, journalists, scholars and the general public, familyfacts.org makes social science research easily accessible to the non-specialist.

Married people (43% very happy) are a good bit happier than unmarrieds (24% very happy) and this has been a consistent finding over the years. It holds up for men as well as for women, and for the old as well as the young.Pew Research Center, Feb 2006

"ACF spends $46 billion per year operating 65 different social programs. If one goes down the list of these programs… the need for each is either created or exacerbated by the breakup of families and marriages."Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families (ACF/HHS) 2004

Optimal age to marry: We are currently recommending marriage, for most people and other things being equal, in the mid-twenties. The research suggests that the drop in the high divorce risk of teen marriage levels off in the early twenties; that is, one does not decrease the risk any further by waiting until the late twenties or thirties. Other research suggests that later marriages (after the late twenties) aren't quite as happy. - David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, National Marriage Project, 10/06AND"The findings suggest that most persons have little or nothing to gain in the way of marital success by postponing marriage beyond their mid-twenties with the finding of the greatest likelihood of being in an intact marriage of the highest quality being among those who married at ages 22-25." - Norval Glenn, U of Texas, in a paper Later First Marriage and Marital Success, which examines the data on age at first marriage and marital success outcomes. Presented at Amer Sociological Assoc, SF, 9/09.

The Case for Waiting (to divorce):- Marriages, like everything else, go through slumps - down times. But, with time, unhappy marriages, just like other problems, often get better on their own. InThe Case for MarriageWaite and Gallagher point out that many who report that their marriages were at the bottom of the scale on marital satisfaction, when asked five years later, reported being at the top on marital happiness. What changed? Many had no idea – often couldn't even remeber that they'd felt things had bottomed out. It seems that simply keeping our vows – hanging in through the "for worse", even the "for boring" or when we feel we're all out of love can, eventually, be what gets us to the promised land. Get married, stay married – what a concept. Recent follow-up research, Does Divorce Make People Happy?, fleshes out their earlier findings and concludes that, in the long run, the solution seems to be to make every effort to fall back in love with the person with whom you have children, extended families, and a history – someone who will enjoy the grandkids with you and has been there to know what you've done for others. As people go through unhappy periods in their marriage they fantasize about getting out of the marriage and finding happiness by falling in love with someone new. Those folks (in multiple marriages) tend to divorce at a higher rate than first marriages – especially if children are involved.

Fatherless StatsChildren from a fatherless home are five times more likely to commit suicide; 32 times more likely to run away; 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders; 14 times more likely to commit rape; nine times more likely to drop out of school; 10 times more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol; and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. - 2010, According to the Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Justice

Divorce causes a decrease in wealth that is larger than just splitting a couple’s assets in half. Divorce is devastating - drops a person's wealth by an average of 77%. And, contrary to popular belief, the research shows that the divorce affects the wealth of men and women equally, divorced women weren't significantly worse off than divorced men, in terms of real money. If you really want to increase your wealth - man or woman- get married and stay married. Accordingto this review of 9,055 baby boomers, married folks accumulated net worths 93%higher than single or divorced individuals. And married individuals tended toexperience average wealth increases of 16 percent annually.Some of that effect is due to economies of scale ... that is, two people can live more cheaply than one. But, the case is clear, married people see an increase in wealth that is more than just adding the assets of two single people.- Jay Zagorsky, Ohio State, Journal of Sociology, Jan 2006

Our research estimates that 55-60% of marriages that end in divorce fall into the category of "good enough marriages". These marriages appear to be functioning well only a year or so prior to the divorce. From a child's perspective, these divorce are unexpected, inexplicable, and unwelcome and are thus most likely to harm children. These marriages are significantly more likely to divorce because of infidelity, citing explanations of "drifting apart" or "communication problems". They are unlikely to mention abuse because these were not highly conflicted marriages. - Paul Amato, Smart Marriages keynote

Marriage and the Law: A Statement of Principles/ A Call from Family and Legal Scholars.2006

Family Structure and Children's Educational Outcomes - Supporting marriage will allow a greater number of children to succeed educationally and flourish socially - 2005, Center for Marriage and Families

Latest Report on trends of Cohabitation, Marriage,Divorce, and Remarriage in the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),National Center for Health Statistics - estimates the patterns & trends as of 1995.

Encouraging Marriage and Discouraging DivorceThe Heritage Foundation, by Pat Fagan, March 2001 Lawmakers and private groups around the country are working to make marriages better, more stable, and more frequent, and are working to reduce the incidence of divorce.

The State of Our Unions 1999: The Social Health of Marriage in America This first edition includes indices of trends in marriage, divorce, unmarried cohabitation, fragile families with children, and teen attitudes about marriage and family.Popenoe & Whitehead, National Marriage Project, July 1999

The State of Our Unions 2000: The Social Health of Marriage in America The National Marriage Project's annual report on the status of marriage in America. Updated indices and highlights of focus-group discussions around the country.Popenoe & Whitehead, National Marriage Project, June 2000

The State of Our Unions 2001: The Social Health of Marriage in America "Who Wants to Marry a Soul Mate?" highlighting the results of a 2001 Gallup poll undertaken for the National Marriage Project examining attitudes about dating and marriage among Americans in their 20s.Popenoe & Whitehead, National Marriage Project, June 2000

Divorce grounds of every State:http://patriot.net/~crouch/50states/ Taken from the American Bar Association's annual tables, and the Martindale-Hubbell law digests for each state. Even so, it is probably not perfect because finding out a state's divorce laws can be a very murky business -- states use the same words to mean very different things, and use half a dozen different words for the same thing, and sometimes the real answer is only to be found in case law, in custom, or in the presumptions courts use in interpreting the statutes. - John Crouch, Americans for Divorce Reform